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Dr. Unqualified

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April 9, 1981, Page 00022 The New York Times Archives

Although Dr. C. Everett Koop deserves his reputation as a fine pediatric surgeon, he is not deserving of the role in which the Reagan Administration hopes to place him - Surgeon General.

The Surgeon General, whose responsibilities include the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Disease Control and the Institute of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, has been, almost without exception, someone with significant experience in the special field of public health.

Many Surgeons General, in fact, have come out of the Public Health Service. Dr. Koop has neither worked in the field nor, during his years at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, shown any interest or influence in it.

Since he lacks the professional qualifications for the appointment and is, in fact, older than the law routinely permits, his attractiveness to the Administration must lie elsewhere. That ''elsewhere'' may be his anti-abortion crusade. Two years ago he toured 20 cities with a film whose message was that abortion led inexorably to euthanasia for the elderly. And he has described amniocentesis, a procedure used to detect congenital disorders like Down's syndrome and Tay-Sachs disease in fetuses, as ''a search-anddestroy mission.''

Dr. Koop is, of course, entitled to his opinions, but opinions should not be construed as qualifications. We hope Congress will reject the appointment, recognizing, as the Administration chooses not to, that it would be an affront both to the public health profession and the public.

A version of this editorial appears in print on April 9, 1981, on Page A00022 of the National edition with the headline: Dr. Unqualified. Today's Paper|Subscribe